Corporate Citizenship Blog

Experts agree: The risks from climate change are increasing in frequency and impact, creating challenges for senior leaders across all economic and political sectors. Leading companies are taking action to help address climate change, a threat that could reconfigure supply chains, production processes, and operations, by practicing risk assessment, informed decision making, and organizational innovation.

The following member spotlight is excerpted from the most recent issue of The Corporate Citizen, the Center’s magazine, and illustrates the importance of strategic communication in effective corporate citizenship programs. To learn more about communicating effectively, join us in New York on Oct. 6-8 for our Communications 101 course.

First, the good news: Today’s corporate citizenship reports are more engaging, relevant, and are communicating the positive environmental, social, governance, and business value that companies are creating. A corporate citizenship report was once a nice to have; now approximately 93 percent of the Global 250 issue them.

Last month, the leaders of seven of the world’s largest economies came together for the G7 summit, and committed to ending reliance on fossil fuels by 2100. In concert with that goal, they pledged to reduce carbon emissions 40-70 percent below 2010 levels by 2050. While the practical details of how these reductions are to be achieved have yet to be outlined, the commitment is a strong signal of how climate change has risen to the forefront of the global environmental and geopolitical discussions. Now, according to Sir David King, the top climate change diplomat in the United Kingdom, we can expect a climate deal to be reached during November’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris.

Choosing the most effective tactic to achieve your communication objective can be a challenge. How can you determine what strategy or tactic to employ?

Corporate citizenship is an enterprise-wide undertaking—not simply the responsibility of one person or a single department, so effective corporate citizenship practitioners must be master collaborators. For many, one of the most important internal relationships is the one they share with the communications and marketing department.

The following is excerpted from the most recent issue of The Corporate Citizen, the Center’s magazine. Look out for the next edition of the Corporate Citizen in early July.

Business leaders are aware of the increasingly significant role that corporate citizenship can play in overall business strategy, and how—if effectively aligned—investments can improve performance.

According to the Center’s 2014 State of Corporate Citizenship study, the majority of executive respondents view corporate citizenship as a way to achieve strategic corporate goals and they expect its importance to increase in the future. In fact, for the first time in the decade that the Center has conducted the study, the majority of executives anticipate resources for every corporate citizenship dimension to increase over the next three years.

Warren Buffet tells a story about Charlie Munger that illustrates a great life lesson,

“Charlie, as a very young lawyer, was probably getting $20 an hour. He thought to himself, ‘Who’s my most valuable client?’ And he decided it was himself. So he decided to sell himself an hour each day. He did it early in the morning, working on these construction projects and real estate deals. Everybody should do this, be the client, and then work for other people, too, and sell yourself an hour a day.”

At the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, we are privileged to spend our days working with corporations to help them achieve their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives—objectives that—if successfully achieved—will make the world a better place. This purpose informs our mission, strategies, and goals. We try to make your hours efficient by doing some of the work for you.

Thirty years ago, a small group of corporate citizenship professionals gathered on campus at Boston College to found the Center for Corporate Citizenship. I am sure that they never imagined that the Center’s members would grow in number and diversity to the group that we have today, but what was certain was that the combination of knowledge, tools, and a room full of smart people would bring innovation and deliver business and social value through environmental, social, and governance initiatives.

Graduation has just passed here at Boston College, and for better or worse students are receiving their final grades for the year. For most of us, the days of receiving a report card are behind us, but that doesn’t mean that—as corporate citizenship professionals—our work is no longer evaluated and judged. The acronyms may have changed from GRE and LSAT to DJSI, CDP, GRI, etc.—but the assessments can still represent important achievements as well as reminders of where we need to work harder.

The world of corporate citizenship ratings and rankings can be just as intimidating to a novice as exams are to students, as the options and methods of submitting materials has increased exponentially over the past decade.

In the United States today, there are more living military veterans than ever before. According to the latest published census in 2014, 19.6 million out of the total 319.2 million Americans are veterans. These men and women have not only sacrificed a great deal defending our country and the freedoms upon which it was founded, they have also accumulated a great many skills and qualities which make them outstanding options as civilian employees. Yet—while their discipline, leadership abilities, and technical skills are widely lauded—military veterans that have served since 2001 have an unemployment rate higher than the national average, one that soars to a staggering 21.4 percent for those between the ages of 18-24.[1]

About Us

Welcome to the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship blog, we are your resource for corporate citizenship insights, research, trending topics and professional development. Our blog is a place to exchange ideas and learn about corporate citizenship.